


camaraderie

by aikotters



Category: Digimon - All Media Types, Digimon Adventure Zero Two | Digimon Adventure 02, Digimon Adventure tri.
Genre: Ableism, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon Rewrite, Canon Universe, F/F, Friendship, M/M, Multi, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Physical Disability, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-29
Updated: 2021-02-15
Packaged: 2021-03-11 00:42:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,239
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28396353
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aikotters/pseuds/aikotters
Summary: In a world where Digimon seemingly passed Motomiya Daisuke by, Ichijouji Ken is hired to tutor the red headed soccer player while juggling his duties as a Chosen Child against the girl known as Lilith. But when strange events keep affecting the Motomiya apartment, Ken is forced to drag his new friend into a world of monsters and magic and it may turn out he's not so unrelated after all. 02/tri AU set in 2005.
Relationships: Chosen Children | DigiDestined & Digimon Partners, Ichijouji Ken & Chosen Children | DigiDestined, Ichijouji Ken/Motomiya Daisuke | Davis Motomiya, Motomiya Daisuke | Davis Motomiya & Chosen Children | DigiDestined, Other Relationship Tags to Be Added, Yagami Hikari | Kari Kamiya & Motomiya Daisuke | Davis Motomiya
Comments: 2
Kudos: 19





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Higuchimon](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Higuchimon/gifts).



> Warning: ableism

The only thing that had kept Ichijouji Ken from becoming the Digimon Kaiser at this very moment (god he cringed at that name, looking back at those old notebooks from being ten years old that he kept as a reminder) was, and he was not exaggerating, the existence of Yagami Hikari and kickboxing class.

Mainly because she kicked the crap out of him once during it and he learned that day that he was way more competitive than he realized.

Before that, his brother's near death-experience with a truck and his parents' subsequent… everything would have driven him down that road much faster than he wanted anyone to know.

But of course, because his leader was the Child of Light, she'd known. Not that he hadn't made it obvious with the many times he'd gotten in trouble in school, the shouted arguments between him and Osamu that just kept getting worse (it was his fault, he knew that he knew that _so much_ ), the way he'd been dragged unceremoniously into the first class by his mother's shaking hand that first day at the age of nine because no one believed him or listened to him or anything were important clues.

(The headaches too, don't forget the headaches and the aches in his neck and the burning whispers that told him his entire house was full of insects and his brother was just a big one who needed a bigger shoe to _squash_.)

And also he'd seen her there, tiny fists swinging against a sandbag held up solidly by a taller boy with wilder hair and burned so badly he'd thought his feet would catch on fire.

That first class where he'd gone in rage swinging and guns blazing and she'd dropped him to the ground in seconds.

... Oh yeah, that'd done wonders for his self-esteem and anger issues.

But it'd stuck and he'd stuck out of stubborn grit and now, well-

Now he was watching his brother hand him a piece of paper through smudged eyes. His brother's limp was permanent. No amounts of therapy (let alone the fights about it with their dad) was enough to make him not struggle to stand and walk, to not have a chronic pain that nothing helped for long.

He used to envy his brother. Ken still did sometimes, now he mostly just felt terrible for him. His brother was still a genius, more than he had been at eleven, still frighteningly smart, but his back and his leg and his hip threatened to tear him apart. Or it would have a lesser person.

Ken scanned the printout. "A tutoring request?" he repeated slowly. "For you?"

His brother's lips quirked into a not-smile. "Yeah. Their kids suck at math and English respectively."

Ken winced in sympathy. "You're teaching the math one?"

"Yeah. I figured you needed some pocket money so I offered you the English one. Close to your age, a dude, apparently hopeless at everything." His brother's not-smile turned into a bitter smirk. "I'm sure you'll find it's a lie or a facade or "my parents don't encourage me to try so I don't." You know, the usual."

Ken considered pretending to punch him, but it might actually hurt him and his parents would yell. "And the sister's the favorite?"

"That's usually how it works when your brother is known for breaking things." Osamu rolled his eyes. "Even if you weren't interested, I need someone to help me get there."

Ken shrugged. He could get behind that. "Fair enough. Let me just let Hikari-san know."

"Yes, keep your girlfriend in the loop."

"You wish she was your girlfriend." He caught his brother's eye and winked. Osamu rolled his eyes.

He was very lucky that Hikari pretended to be his girlfriend. It covered the Chosen Child excuse (studying because his school went at a faster pace), his time spent with people of different ages (she ran a photography club in the computer lab), and his carefully closeted (in his own opinion) gayness.

He didn't think his parents would mind, but the _neighbors_ would. None of them wanted a repeat of following Osamu's accident where they alternated between "he was now too damaged to breathe by himself" and "it was disgraceful he needed a wheelchair sometimes".

He typed into his D-Terminal and got an almost instant response of kaomojis and genuine delight.

"Daisuke-kun's my classmate and we live near each other. He's very smart. Just take him with you to eat when you teach him, he works better when he can relate it to his dreams."

"Will do," he typed back. "Well, apparently he's Hikari-san's friend, so I'm extra screwed." He thought he remembered him too. Was that the boy who broke into Hikari's house to make her eat his homemade soup? That sounded right.

"Get ready for that shovel talk," Osamu told him gravely. "C'mon, I'm having a good day, let's sneak out and get some cake."

Ken smiled.

He could never complain about something like that.

* * *

Daisuke grunted in pain. "Geez, Hikari-chan, bust my nose, why don't you?"

"Sorry!" His childhood friend actually sounded apologetic, glancing at him around the sandbag to make sure he was okay.

He immediately nodded and then looked away. Look, don't judge him, she was really cute. But she was his friend. He was not gonna make it weird. Ever. He had standards. "I'm fine, but now I see why senpai keeps finding excuses not to help you after school."

"It's more because he wants to brood about being an adult soon." Hikari pulled back a bit and Daisuke braced himself again. "Career questions came out. He's not nearly as okay with it as he thought he would be."

"He could go into soccer though!" Daisuke protested, trying to imagine his senpai in a dusty office job cubicle and promptly feeling disgusted.

Hikari swung and shook her head. "He doesn't think he has the legs anymore. A little more with his knees and boom. Especially with the digital world being prone to calling at any time." Her fist hit the bag with another resounding thud and Daisuke winced in appreciation.

"I thought that was what you guys were for." Not that Daisuke minded knowing she wasn't always rushing off into danger without much backup aside from that guy _Takeru_. He didn't dislike Takeru but he'd hopped happily into "important place in his friend's life" in a way that was supremely weird. He kind of wished he had a digivice and a digimon and stuff just so he could stay close to his friend like before. It wasn't the same as knowin she was fine.

Hikari smiled wearily, that one that didn't reach her eyes. "We never know with this kind of thing." One final jab and then Hikari stepped back and started to stretch. "I think that's all I've got time for for today. You have tutoring to prepare for and I have to go do touch ups for photography. Are you sure you don't want me to use the photos you made of your latest ramen? They were really good."

Daisuke flushed and then followed her lead, leaning back and then forward again. "Nah. Thanks for letting me borrow your camera though. My parents wouldn't ever let me get something like that. They wouldn't even let _Jun_ get something like that."

"It was a birthday present from my brother." She laughed. "You know my parents wouldn't let me get it either without eighty years of manual labor. I still don't know how he got it." She rolled her shoulders. "Let me know if you change your mind though, they'd make great practice advertisements for when your ramen conglomerate is booming."

She had a teasing smile, but her eyes were serious, intent and kind. She was certain he could do it, and that was the thing he loved the most about her. Well, no it wasn't, but it was pretty high up on the list.

Beginning to peel off his gloves and the tape, he cracked his back. She grimaced at the sound. "So, how is your boyfriend?"

Hikari actually laughed and shook her head. "Ken-kun's fine. I'm glad he's the one tutoring you and not one of his classmates."

"Feel sorry for his brother," Daisuke quipped. "He's stuck with my sister."

She gave him a half-hearted look of disapproval, but she hadn't said anything about it to him since he graduated elementary school. Good enough for him. "He's really good at speaking English and Spanish. I'm not sure if he's good at any others, he can curse in French though."

"Oh he has to teach me that first."

She giggled and he smiled. Then a soft beeping sound registered in their ears and Hikari watched her digivice flicker with light. Daisuke watched her face shutter closed and she rose to her full, albeit diminutive, height. "I guess that's our cue," he said, trying to laugh it off.

Hikari sighed. "I guess so. I'll tell Ken-kun to come to you first, just so stuff gets established. If I need him, I'll message him."

"You sure?" He could wait a couple days.

Hikari nodded. "Positive. He has to keep an eye on his brother." She picked up her bag to head to the locker room. "Thanks again, Daisuke-kun."

"Yeah…"

It sucked. It sucked watching her go. It sucked remembering that day inside the community center being brought to stare at a terrified white cat. It sucked to remember that sky full of mountains, then a world full of darkness, and spots of light everywhere while he was shrouded in cold shadows.

It sucked, but times like this filled Daisuke with relief that he didn't have to go.

He hated himself for it.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tags: inappropriate humor, ableism.

Ichijouji Ken sometimes wished that he had beaten Hikari that day at eight years old, if only to feel comfortable calling her a _god damn lunatic._

_"Alert from my brother. Stay your course. I'll call you if you need to come."_

"Idiot," he muttered, his fingers gripping tightly on his brother's wheelchair. Osamu, who was carefully pacing himself towards the elevator, replied through grit teeth.

"My IQ is 145, I hardly think I'm an idiot."

"You have your moments," Ken reassured him, loosening his grip. (It had begun to hurt.) "I was talking about Hikari-san, not you."

"You have a thing for people able to kick your ass," Osamu replied, leaning on the cane for a moment. His thumb traced the clumsily carved swirls and rough birds. A gift for his fourteenth birthday, it was the first time in five years Ken had seen both his parents cry while hugging him. (His mother often cried, and his father often smiled. It was terrible.) "Do me a favor and get the door."

"Right, sorry." Ken moved around him to do so and pretended he didn't see the way his face contorted. It was just what they had to do. "I can't believe this elevator works."

"Thanks for reminding me we have to go on it." The two of them moved inside, grateful to have seen absolutely no one else.

Not that this helped Ken's nerves any. He resisted the urge to hurl his D-Terminal at the wall. That'd be hard to explain to the landlord.

"Look, one of us has to have the morbid sense of humor, you can't get everything." The words would have had more bite to them even not too long ago, sometimes even today, but there was way too much on Ken's mind right now to remember to be jealous of his older brother.

Osamu didn't even seem to mind. He just let out a snort. "Sure I can. It's firstborn rights. I get everything first, you get everything with a shiny coat of paint, our non-existent little sister gets told she's inferior and needs to find a good husband in much prettier words, and so on."

"Please don't talk about our parents having sex, I honestly cannot take it right now." Ken rubs his eyes and sighs. "So you're teaching English."

"I'm assuming I'm teaching this person what the letters of the alphabet are first."

"Not with that attitude."

Osamu scowls but doesn't disagree.

"She might think you're hot anyway."

"Mm. Nerds. Big glasses, get the girls flirting."

"Maybe in another country."

Osamu snorted and gathered up his strength again. Then he stopped and settled back. "No, no, let's nip this in the bud right now." He began the cautious motions of his wheelchair.

Ken, silent, followed him.

* * *

Motomiya Daisuke was not nervous.

Not really. Anyone who could be Hikari-chan's friend, even _Takeru_ when the blond wasn't treating her like glass and him like a very confusing tagalong could easily be his friend and he could be theirs. He wasn't even really all that nervous about looking stupid. The entire point of tutoring was that you didn't know things and needed help to learn them.

If he was nervous about anything, it was probably Jun. She kept pacing and fidgeting and grimacing. Their parents had wanted to be there but today was shopping day for mom and dad was working late to compensate for this (even though the tutors themselves weren't asking for much of anything, the schools were, so there was probably that to consider.

The teapot whistled on the stove and Jun rushed for it. Daisuke picked his nails as there was a knock at the door.

Thankfully his sister didn't shriek or spill boiling water on herself. As a kid, he'd found this crap kind of annoying, her fluttery towards boys, her hogging the bathroom, her general big sisterness, but they've gotten older. He saw it for what it was now.

"I got it," he told her. "Don't crumble the cookies." She glowered at him, gratitude in her twitching mouth, and he opened the door to see two young men with purple hair. One stood awkwardly straight behind the other, who scratched his leg as he sat in the wheelchair.

Hikari had thankfully told him that too, so he just smiled. "Hey."

"Hey yourself," retorted the seated one. "Which Motomiya are you?"

"Nii-san," the other hissed. "Don't be rude."

"No."

The other sighed. "Sorry about him. The elevator needs work."

"It's cool," Daisuke said with a shrug, guessing between the lines. "I say the same thing. My parents tell me I'm ungrateful. I'm Daisuke. I need help with math. I can't read numbers for crap so good luck whoever's got me."

"That'd be me," said the other ."I'm Ichijouji Ken and this is my older brother, Osamu. I'm mostly here to look good and count to ten."

"Did you just flirt?" snorted his brother as Ken blushed red to his ears and grumbled, "well it sounded good."

"I mean, I've heard worse," Daisuke offered with a grin of his own. "Nice to meetcha. Come on, so you can meet my sister. She's a little nervous so be nice."

"Can't promise that," grunted Osamu, who pulled himself in.

Ken gave Daisuke a sheepish look before following after him. Daisuke raised an eyebrow. The name Ichijouji was vaguely familiar. The newspaper had heralded him as a brilliant boy caught in a tragic accident or something. He thought he remembered his mother not letting him outside to play for the week after it happened because it had been something that happened more than once for a while. There'd been no mention of a brother or anything.

Well, Daisuke thought, at least it wouldn't be boring.

Jun was sitting up ramrod straight when he came back to the room, tea ready to pour if asked. She was, however, staring at Osamu with a dropped jaw.

Oh, this could either end really great or kill their chances of passing these classes forever.

"Does she need a reboot?" Osamu asked, all while his brother hissed at him about being rude.

Daisuke moved towards his sister, giving her a look of at least vague concern. She hadn't freaked out straight to tranquil fury, right? The last time she'd done that, he'd had to hide all of his valuables in his sock drawer. "Nee-san…?"

She grabbed him by the wrist and dragged him closer, still not looking away from their tutors.

"Don't let me muck this up," she hissed, fingers digging painfully into his wrist. "He's really freaking hot…"

Daisuke wanted to roll his eyes right then and there, but honestly? He couldn't blame her. "Fair. I'll try. Just don't flunk."

* * *

Hikari was no Yagami Taichi, but three years of everyone telling her that she didn't have to be was starting to actually penetrate through her skull had convinced her that maybe that wasn't so bad.

Hida Iori was steady at her side, twelve and firm, his wooden blade ready to strike. Armadimon padded after him. Inoue Miyako, right behind him, was looking one way and then the other, her partner Hawkmon circling them overhead. Bringing up the rear was Takeru, who had always had her back, even when she was pretty sure they didn't need to. Patamon settled on his head, seemingly relaxed.

(He wasn't. The two of them were never relaxed until they were home and able to lick their wounds. Especially not now.)

Ahead of Hikari herself was Tailmon, her best partner, her best friend. She sniffed about and said, "It was around here."

"It" was the sight of the attackers. Digimon, unbalanced by something or other, Hikari in the four years since becoming the "leader" of this younger group, had learned to take what people considered evil with a grain of salt.

"They ate him," Tailmon elaborated. "Kentarumon."

Hikari winced and Miyako and Iori both shuddered. Takeru looked nauseated. The Digimon? Though disgusted, none of them seemed surprised.

There wouldn't be a corpse, Hikari knew. Dead digimon left no corpses.

But as the group reached the fallen tree, there was something there. Someone. A girl a bit older than them, her long black hair tied in a ponytail with a bow, sat on the tree stump. At first glance, she was wearing the high school uniform of her brother's school, sans jacket, her hands folded neatly in her lap. Beside her sat an orange cat, it dwarfing Tailmon by a full head.

She smiled at them, eyes closing behind her glasses. "Good afternoon, Chosen Children," she greeted. "I… I guess you're here about the digimon that died here, aren't you?"

Hikari felt everyone tense behind her and shook her head at them. She merely smiled. She was getting good at that. "Yes, and you are…?"

"Ah, uhm…" The girl ran her fingers through her hair and nervously twirled them on her fingers. "That's… not important right now. You can call me… Lillith, if you'd like. Yes, I like that. So… I'd like to ask you something if you don't mind."

She rose to her feet, stepping smoothly over the sleeping cat and closer towards them. "Please leave this case alone, these issues alone. I would be very grateful if you did. This has nothing to do with you. I just want to save Mei-chan."

"And if we refuse?" Hikari asked her in the same, gentle voice. This person seemed kind. Kindness meant nothing.

Lilith smiled and raised the digivice in her hands, a pulsing black and purple with a brilliant red screen. It pulsed and the cat rose up at once, snarling with eyes a glimmering green. "Then we'll make you leave."

**Author's Note:**

> Hey higuchi! I hope you like your prize fic where I uh, make the 02 kids relevant to tri instead! Let's see how this goes!


End file.
